The Lucky Bullet

by H. S. Strickland

  I watched the red light, waiting until it turned green, ignoring Kota’s nervous vibes.

  The light turned green and I slammed my foot on the gas, quickly getting into 3rd gear; the kid was nowhere to be found. I smirked.

  This was one thing I would always be confident in. Before my papa died, he taught me all about cars. He would always take me out in his Mustang. That’s where I got my love for them from. He would do this with me every now and then.

  I was always thrilled with it as a young girl. As soon as I got my license I started racing. I made a lot of money in high school from racing, though I didn’t need it.

  We pulled into Mace’s driveway a few minutes later; I was laughing my ass off at Kota’s face as she got out of the car when Mace came out of the house in a rush.

  “Ray, get your ass in the house now. Kota you too. We’ll worry about your stuff later.”

  I hadn’t even moved my foot before Mace came over and practically dragged Kota and I into the house.

  “Mace, baby, what the hell?” I asked, my brows scrunched together. I was thoroughly confused.

  “You were supposed to be at the office, what are you-,” my question was cut off by Mace’s furious stare.

  I shut up very quickly, not liking what he was telling me with his eyes.

  “Will you tell me what happened?” I questioned.

  “Number one, what the fuck were you doing racing?” My eyes swung to Kota and I noticed she was looking at me with the same bewildered expression.

  “How did you know that?” I said, straightening my spine. He couldn’t walk over me and tell me how to drive MY car!

  “Don’t even gear up to me Ray; you realize the power behind that car could’ve killed you in an instant?” He told me.

  I just opened and closed my mouth. I didn’t know what to say to him. He had a good point, the power behind that car could easily kill me, but I’ve been racing since I was 16 years old. I didn’t think that was the appropriate time to bring it up though.

  “We’ll talk about it later. While I was at work, a note was slipped into the building and said to ‘watch my back’ it was signed by your wonderful ex-boyfriend.”

  I watched as Mace’s mouth kept moving, but I didn’t hear a sound. My ears were ringing and my vision was going blurry. Why is he doing this? I thought. It made no sense. He got what he wanted, to break me, there wasn’t any reason for him to come back. I don’t understand, was my last thought before my head hit the wooden floors and the black surrounded me.

  Chapter 15

  Mace

  Ray passed out from hearing that her douche bag of an ex was threating us. She was so scared of him that she passed out. I was fucking pissed, and this mother fucker was going to get what was coming to him.

  “Go to the bathroom down the hall and get a wet wash cloth for her,” I told Kota as I ran over to Ray.

  I picked her up and sat her down on the couch as Kota came running out of the hallway toward me, handing me the wash cloth and biting her lip, looking scared and helpless.

  “Go get a glass of water, yeah?” I nodded toward the kitchen and watched Kota scurry into the kitchen.

  I leaned down and whispered in Ray’s ear, while putting the wash cloth on her forehead.

  “Babe, wake up. It’s okay he’s not going to hurt you anymore.” She started stirring at the sound of my voice in her ear.

  I finally got a glimpse of those beautiful green, blue and violet eyes. I watched as she cleared the cloud of unconsciousness from her head. Then a dark cloud washed over her features. I assumed she remembered what happened. I frowned.

  Kota came back in the living room with the glass of water and gave it to Ray. She greedily gulped down the water. She set the glass on the wooden coffee table and looked at me.

  “What do we do about this?” She asked after a minute.

  “I have my guys on him. I have a tech guy looking into him, credit card records, all of it. I want to know where he’s at, at all times. We are going to be setting up surveillance cameras around the house, and in parts of the house. They will be watched 24/7. I’m going to be putting a tracker on your phone. If anything happens to you I will be able to find you.”

  These precautions were non-negotiable. I wanted to make sure she was safe at all times.

  She looked unsure of the idea, but didn’t say a word about it. She knew by the tone of my voice and my face that I was serious. I wouldn’t play around thinking her ex was joking with all of the threats and then something happen to Araylia. That was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.

  “Babe, I’m going to send Ryan or one of the other guys over to watch you while I finish up at the office.” I said to her. I had to get all the shit I could on Luke Wellington that I could.

  “Okay honey.” Ray whispered to me. She leaned up and wrapped her slender arms around my bulky shoulders.

  “Please don’t be gone long, I need cuddles,” she said softly in my ear, reminding me what Liam said about cuddles last night.

  She needed some comfort and although Kota could give her comfort, she wanted it from me and she was expressing it. It wasn’t something she would usually do, being so guarded. So knowing she was opening up to me, even if it was just a little, it meant a lot. It was a huge thing for us.

  Therefore, I was going to hurry at the office.

  “I will babe, promise.” I held my pinky out to her, waiting for her to take it. This was something my sister and I used to do, before she was murdered. It felt nice to share her with somebody else.

  I kissed Ray hard on the mouth and pulled away. After I was out of the house and angling my massive frame in my pearl colored Dodge Ram 1500, I pulled out my phone and dialed Ryan’s number.

  “Hey man, are you doing much at the office?” I asked, praying he would say no.

  I needed somebody to go sit at my house, and granted I trusted my guys, I only trusted Ryan with my girl.

  “Nope. I’m taking care of some last minute paper work from our last case. I was trying to get it closed up. Why, what do you need?” I could tell Ryan was already on the move. I heard his car keys jingle then a second later I heard his office door shut.

  That was one of the reason I loved Ryan like he was my own flesh and blood. He didn’t even know what I wanted and he already had his keys in his hand and was headed out the door. I could be telling him we were going back to war and he would still be heading out of the door.

  “I’ll worry about the paper work another time. This is more important. I got a note from Ray’s ex, Luke, it said to ‘watch my back’. I’m sure it was meant for me, not Ray, but I’m not taking any chances. She’s at my house and I need eyes on her,” I told him knowing he wouldn’t turn me down.

  “No problem, man. Are we going to have to do this often or are you going to set up cameras at your house?” He asked.

  “I’ll get Cade to set up the cameras tomorrow. I’m going to get Leo to find anything he can on Luke. So I won’t be gone long,” I said.

  “Roger. I’ll be at your house in 10.” I groaned after he hung up.

  Ryan said ‘roger’ before getting off the phone. He has been doing that since he was a teenager. I was wondering when he was going to grow out of, but he hadn’t yet.

  I pulled into the underground parking lot a few minutes later and parked the truck. Looking around the parking lot, I didn’t see one of the black Escalades, so Ryan had already left. After parking, I got out of the truck and took the elevator up to the 5th floor, to my office.

  One of the first things I did when I got out of the Marines was bought this building. I loved the piece of shit and rebuilt it pretty much from the ground up. I called it a piece of shit because that was how it was when I bought it. There was no flooring, the walls had holes in them, and there was no insulation. It was basically a piece of shit. I had put my blood, sweat, and tears into this place and I loved the outcome.

  After I stepped off the elevator I headed to my right. The walls were a
rich deep brown. After you rounded the corner there was a lounge couch on the left and a mahogany desk on the right. The middle was left open so you could walk down the hall to all of our offices. My office was the biggest and the farthest one back, last door on the left. I walked into my office and sat down at my desk.

  I pulled on of the drawers open and grabbed the file I needed. It held Luke Wellington’s phone number, current address, credit card numbers, and his social security number.

  I closed the file and closed the drawer. I walked down the hall and knocked on the third door on the right.

  “Open.” I heard Leo’s voice yell.

  I walked in and saw Leo sitting behind his desk, looking back and forth between his computer and the papers sitting on his desk.

  “Need you to do something for me,” I told him.

  He looked up from his papers and sighed, “I really hope this is important. I’m kind of busy.” He nodded his head to the papers on his desk.

  “Yeah it is important. Ray’s ex, Luke, slipped a note into the building earlier. It’s why I left early. I have his social, phone number, and credit card number. I need you to find out whatever you can on him. I want to know where he has been in the past two weeks, what flights have been booked in his name, hotels. Anything. 30 minutes.” I looked at him pointedly.

  He knew I wasn’t dicking around. I had no time for his shitty mood. I walked out of his office and went to Ryan’s. I grabbed the file I needed to close the case he was talking about on the phone. After I grabbed them I went back into my office and finished the paper work.

  I walked back into Leo’s office and waited for him to speak.

  “Nothing. I can’t find anything on this fucker. It’s all ghost trails. There are no out of ordinary payments on anything. Gas, food, and rent, that’s about all that’s on his credit cards. There were no flights or hotels. He’s clean, man. He hasn’t been down here. I checked to see if there were large amounts of cash taken out, thinking maybe he took the money out and paid cash, nope. He didn’t even do that.” Leo told me frustration, lacing his tone.

  “He’s either one smart mother fucker and got somebody else to pay for it, or he really hasn’t been down here. If he hasn’t been down here, I want to know who the hell trashed Ray’s house and who sent me that note.” I told him. This was beginning to piss me off. How the hell could he be down here and destroy Ray’s house but have no record of it? I thought.

  There was no explanation for it. I was so fucking frustrated with this. It made no sense.

  “Thanks man, I appreciate it. Keep a check on it regularly would you?” I asked Leo.

  He nodded his head and went back to working on his shit. I clapped him on the back and thanked him again before moving out of the building. I needed to get back to Ray.

  I moved through the underground parking garage, feeling the eerie sensation that somebody was watching me. I looked out of peripheral vision and didn’t see anything but I knew I was being watched by somebody. I turned my head toward the mouth of the parking garage, at the street, and saw a black van idling. Ah so that’s who was watching me, I thought.

  They wouldn’t want to fuck with me in my place of work, whoever it was. They would go down fairly quickly if they took any action toward me here. I doubt they would though. Keeping my eyes on the van, I angled my body back in my truck, threw my seat belt on and took off.

  I waited to see if the van would follow me and a second later I saw it two cars behind. Guess I would be taking a detour. I went down and up random streets, waiting it out. After 15 minutes of aimless driving I had lost them and drove home. I pushed the call button on my stereo and called Cade’s number.

  He picked after the second ring, “Yeah,” he grunted.

  “Cade, what’s your near future looking like? Got any big plans?” I asked him, hoping I would get the response I wanted.

  “Do I usually have plans man?” He asked back in smart ass tone. I wonder who pissed in his cheerios.

  “Good, I need you to go on a trip for me then,” I told him.

  “Where?” He asked in a business tone, simply Cade, straight down to business.

  I had gotten off the phone with Cade just as I was pulling into my driveway. I saw Ray’s car and Ryan’s escalade. I heaved a sigh of relief. I knew Ryan would be here, but it was still nice to see it for my own eyes.

  Instead of using the front door, I came in through the garage, into the kitchen, looking over the breakfast bar, and I was surprised shitless.

  Ray was on the couch, with her head in Kota’s lap and her feet in Ryan’s lap. Kota was playing with Ray’s hair, running her fingers through it, and Ryan was massaging Ray’s feet. They were all watching Jerry Springer.

  I busted out laughing, I couldn’t control it. Ray was getting completely pampered, by her best friend and a guy she hardly knew. The funny thing was Ryan hated feet. He could barely stand looking at his own; much less touch somebody’s feet he didn’t know. At least I know how far he would go for her.

  Ray screamed when she heard my laughter coming from the kitchen, after she realized it was me in the kitchen; she lifted her head up off of Kota’s lap and smiled at me. Her eyes went soft at the sight of me. It was that weird feeling in my chest again, when I saw the soft look.

  I strode out of the kitchen and into my sunken in living room, I reached the back of the couch and Ray leaned up all the way. Her front was to the back of the couch; she tilted her head back and made a kissy face at me. My lips lifted up in a smirk as I bent down to touch my mouth to hers in a soft kiss.

  I pulled away and looked at Ryan; he was already giving me the look that said ‘shut up.’ I gave him an evil smile.

  “So Ryan, I swear I recall you hating feet. What’s happened since then?” I smirked at him.

  Ray gasped, “Ryan, if you hated feet you didn’t have to massage mine! You could have told me! I could have put my head in your lap and my feet in Kota’s!”

  I said, “Like hell you would have,” at the same time Ryan said,

  “Don’t think that would have been a good idea, hon.”

  Ray blushed and looked down. Obviously realizing that it wasn’t a good idea, after she said it.

  Changing the topic Ray said, “I need to go pick up Liam from Michael’s, but first since you have some more hands, honey, why don’t you go unload my car?”

  I nodded my head, gave Ray a kiss on the cheek and went to unload her death trap. While Ryan and I were getting all her shit, I filled him in on what Leo had found. Which wasn’t anything, but he needed to know. I also filled him in on the black van that was trying to follow me before I lost him.

  I couldn’t make out who was driving the van because the windows were too tinted, but if I saw it again I was going to get a plate number for Leo to run.

  If this shit kept up, I was taking Ray and Liam and hauling ass to the cabin I had in the mountains. It was time for me to take a vacation any way. I know Ray would love to get away. Especially right now, in the thick of everything happening with Luke. It would help her de-stress some, and it would give us time to each other. Since we had started dating something was always happening.

  I walked into the house with the last box, full of something really fucking heavy.

  “Babe, what’s in this damn box?” I asked Ray, none of the other boxes were this damn heavy. I grunted and sat the box down.

  I wasn’t a pussy by any means, but that box had to weigh over 100 pounds.

  Ray got up of the couch and opened the box. The box was filled to the brim with nothing but shoes.

  “Oh honey, that’s just my shoes. I think there was another box about the same size with more in it,” she told me nonchalantly. As if having two huge boxes of shoes, that weighed 100 pounds, wasn’t a big deal.

  “Uh, babe, where the hell are we going to fit all these shoes?” I asked.

  She had the decency to look sheepish with the amount of shoes she had.

  “Oh! I know. The ones I wear t
he most can go in our closet, and the other ones can go in the guest bedroom. If that’s fine with you?” She said all in a rush.

  Well I’m glad I don’t have a lot of shoes, I thought. I raised my eye brow and shook my head, picking the box back up and placing it in the guest bedroom. She could go through it and decide where she wanted the damn shoes.

  A half hour later, I was trailing behind Ray on the bike. We were headed to her brother’s house to get Liam. I wanted time for Ray and me to be by ourselves, but I was glad to be getting her son back. I had grown attached to him in the little amount of time I had known him. Plus I would feel safer with him under my roof, where I could watch him and take care of him and Ray myself.

  We pulled into Michael’s driveway, parking both her car and my bike. Ray didn’t even bother to knock on the door; she walked right in yelling,

  “Liam! Where is my baby?”

  Liam rounded the corner and came running at his mother. I watched as Liam and his mother’s face lit up.

  I had never understood mother and son love, I never had any experience. My mother was never a bad mother; she just didn’t care enough about us. She basically ignored my existence and my sister’s after she was born. We were just the kids that ruined her marriage. After I was born, my father starting working late nights, never wanting to be home with the ‘thing’ that cried all night. My parents were the reason I was so protective of my sister, Lottie. While I watched Liam’s face, seeing his love, I understood what true love was. You could see the love he had for his mother shinning in his eyes, the trust they put in you. I wonder if Lottie had betrayal shinning in her eyes her last few moments on Earth. I imagined she would have felt betrayed by me for leaving her, the one night she needed me most. She would still be alive had I not gone to that recruiter’s office to talk to him about joining.

  Shaking the dark thoughts from my head I look around Michael’s house, I’d been here a few times to pick up cases Michael had for me. We were in the living room that had an L-shaped couch and a coffee table in the center, a T.V. mounted on the wall with an entertainment center under the T.V. filled with stacks of movies.